


Three Lies and a Truth

by Lady_of_the_Refrigerator



Category: The Blacklist (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, F/M, Internal Conflict, Mid-Season, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-19 16:39:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18138266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_the_Refrigerator/pseuds/Lady_of_the_Refrigerator
Summary: The haunted look in Lizzy’s eyes made Red’s stomach roil with guilt. It was a cruel reality—to explain the truth after so long might be worse than letting her believe a lie. Even if the lie had… disturbing implications. Implications that the truth would certainly resolve, but at what cost? [Post-5x08, short chapters. Fair warning—this leans towards a pretty twisted interpretation of possible unintended consequences of that second memory manipulation (not at Red's hand).]





	Three Lies and a Truth

Red’s world tilted on its axis. An invisible weight pressed down on him, causing his head to spin and his knees to threaten to buckle beneath him.  
  
This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t.  
  
“I’m not a danger to Agnes,” he said, and it was a struggle to keep the desperation, the devastation out of his voice.  
  
“I know that.”  
  
The haunted look in Lizzy’s eyes made Red’s stomach roil with guilt. The worst part of all of this was that there was nothing he could do to stop it, nothing he could say that would change her mind, not unless he wanted to risk losing her. It was a cruel reality—to explain the truth after so long might be worse than letting her believe a lie. Even if the lie had… disturbing implications. Implications that the truth would certainly resolve, but at what cost?  
  
Still, he had to _try_ to convince her to change her mind. The ache he felt in his soul was enough to make him want to. Even if he couldn’t go into specifics. Even if he couldn’t explain _why_ this didn’t have to happen.  
  
Good god, what a nightmare. One that was almost entirely of his own creation. Each and every opportunity he had to tell the truth that he didn’t take stung like another lie.  
  
“If you don’t think I’m a danger to her, why do this? Why disrupt her life right now? I’ve taken care of her for almost a year. Surely I can keep doing so until you come back without causing any—”  
  
“Please,” Lizzy insisted. “I don’t want her growing up thinking what we are is something normal.”  
  
Red’s eyes slid shut and he clenched his jaw. That was an argument he couldn’t win. Not without… well. What else could he expect, really, after everything?  
  
“Fine,” he said, quiet and lost. He could barely think of a time when he felt such utter defeat. And considering the life he’d led, that was certainly saying something.


End file.
